![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-6416-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-coot-6416-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nSome bird behaviors are difficult to explain.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I noticed that the American Coot in my viewfinder was beginning to act very strangely. “He’ had been feeding calmly so he had a beak-full of vegetation but suddenly he began to make a weird fuss in the water as he glanced skyward. He tried to dive a single time but I believe the water may have been too shallow for a dive to serve his purposes.<\/p>\n
I had no idea what was going on, or what might be about to happen, but my instincts told me to fire off a burst so that’s what I did.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n All the fuss was caused by an aggressive gull coming in for a sneak attack.<\/p>\n Typically gulls don’t bother adult coots so I have no clue why this one would make such an attack. I’m pretty sure it had no interest in the vegetation in the coots bill as food, nor do I believe it was a squabble over feeding territory. And I doubt a gull would try to kill an apparently healthy adult coot and eat it. Maybe the gull was testing the coot to see if it was vulnerable for some reason.<\/p>\n Or perhaps it just had a chip on its shoulder.<\/p>\n Because the coot couldn’t dive to escape, he defended himself with an aggressive threat display so the gull never quite made contact. As a result, the near-fight ended with a whimper as the gull vamoosed.<\/p>\n Sometimes the motivations for bird behaviors are mysterious but I believe that only makes them more interesting.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some bird behaviors are difficult to explain.<\/p>\n